Saturday, August 8, 2009

My son-in-law is pastor of a church in West Virginia. He has a blog (see a blog post herein of an earlier date). The following is a recent post of his that I find exceptionally worthy to pass along to you, my readers.

You have got to check out this short excerpt of a piece of writing from Bernard of Clairvaux. He wrote it somewhere around the year 1125. It is amazing how clearly and relevantly it comes across after 900 years. Check it out!

"Churches are full of people who are fairly miserable because they are still bound to earth, and not free in spirit to soar with the joys of heaven. And as for good character and godly living - it seems that the quality of Christian character goes down as our numbers increase.

For now, it must be so. You and I must live among others who fill up the church and whose hearts are truly dark. Run from any 'Christian' who lives to please his flesh, as if you were fleeing from the worst danger. For fire is prepared for all those who lead little ones astray. Do not let your profession of faith - 'I am following Christ' - turn out to be a mockery.....

Do not be led out of your place in Christ, I tell you. Instead, remain true to God and you will know the true working of grace, which gives strength within."

Posted by Shane S.

I am not in agreement with most of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, of which Bernard of Clairvaux was a monk, I find this statement of his to be so true today as it was during the time in which he lived.

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"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." John 5:24

__________________________"Courage is fear that has said it's prayers."(pg. 129 A Wedding for Julia by Vannetta Chapman)

You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have ~Corrie Ten Boom

"God has a very unique way of scooping up the shattered fragments of our hopes and dreams and molding them into a plan of His own - a plan vastly different from ours, but far more wonderful."--Anita Dittman, Holocaust survivor

Man has a madness to misuse that which his mind has manufactured.--Vera G.

A mountain top view is always the more appreciated after you climb out of a dark valley.--Vera G.

To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.— Leonard Bernstein

Some of the people who have impacted me have been as ships that pass in the night. A brief encounter that none-the-less leaves a wake that lifts and floats you and somehow impacts you. Friends are not always forever. They are sometimes like ships in the night – passing briefly and casting a radiance on our being.--Vera

As each new chapter unfolds, we look at past days with wishful sighs longing for the sweetness of them. But each new dawn brings exciting adventures for the growing child to embrace as an adult and for the parent to embrace as one who has launched a wonderful ship on the sea of life.

When play is the work of children and imagination the fuel of discovery, the longings of a child's heart become fantastically real to them enabling them to engage in a world of wonder.

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